For A Brighter Tomorrow
by Sierra Drake
Summary: Torn away from her home and thrown into a new life as a Grey Warden, how will Elaine Cousland fare? With the help of an almost-Templar and a lot of strange persons, they might even be able to end this Blight.
1. Prologue Oh Bloody Night

**Prologue – Oh Bloody Night**

It was blood, blood everywhere. I closed my eyes and all I could see was the vivid images of soldiers dying for my hand or the teeth and claws of my trusted war dog. It was my life or theirs, and like all other beings, I had done what I needed to do to stay alive but that didn't stop the disturbing images from occupying my mind. But in a way, I was grateful. I'd rather see the pained face of some unknown soldiers I had never met before, than the tormented face of my beloved family, my dear, darling father who was bleeding to death and my precious and brave mother who had decided to stay with him to the very end. Not to mention my caring sister-in-law and my carefree and happy nephew. I would never see them again, only in the afterlife if the Maker saw it fit.

I guessed Duncan had fallen asleep. I should be sleeping too, he had told me that he was a light sleeper and was good at sensing darkspawn even when sleeping so we both could rest. I could not, however. I wanted to scream and hit him really hard with something. Preferably an axe or something similar. My whole family but my older brother – who most likely also was dead – had just been murdered by a man my father had laughed with, fought side by side with and called friend. Being a Grey Warden was not something I wanted or longed for, I did not want to search for glory or to save Ferelden. All I wanted was my family to be alive again, to be with me once again. Probaby Duncan did feel with me, but he was looking for new recruits so perhaps in a way he was happy... no, noone can be that cruel. He was just... maybe old, wise or something. Used to tradgedies. That, however, did not make my personal tradgedy any smaller in my eyes. Was there even a way to survive all this with my mind intact...? My heart was shattered and torn as if someone had ripped it out of my chest, thrown it to the ground and stamped on it.

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Well, that's a start. And we all know I own nothing of this already :D

Yours / Sierra Drake


	2. Chapter 1 Ostagar

**Chapter 1 – Ostagar**

For the first time in my short life, I had met the king, king Cailan of Ferelden. He seemed nice enough, but maybe a bit to obsessed with glory, fame and all those things. I could understand that his advisor wished him to remain in the background, not on a battlefield. On the other hand, being king and a leader inspired the soldiers a great deal. Ah, you could never please all of them anyway, being a normal human being made that quite impossible. Now, I was a bit upset with Duncan – again. So, now I had to endure some kind of ritual to formally be a Grey Warden – and he hadn't even bothered to mention it before – and on top of that he took my mabari with him while he sent me on an errand to fetch another Grey Warden who apperantly was among the youngest – newest – in the order. And just how was I supposed to find this guy? All I knew was his name, that he was taller then me (wich wasn't really surprising, considering my height, wich isn't something to brag about) and blonde. A few years older then me I guessed. What's a girl to do? Well, I started by asking a few people after having scared the living light of the Quartermaster by mistake. Ah, at least he gave me some directions on were I might find the elusive Grey Warden I was searching for.

"I was even going to name one of my children after you – the grumpy one!"

I snuck up on these two people arguing. At least one of them was – the other one seemed to just enjoy mocking the first one, who was a mage. Bad idea, mocking with mages. But he huffed and went away, wich left me alone with the blonde man who started to look at me with mischevious eyes.

"You know, one thing about the Blight is how it brings people together."

He said in a slightly amused tone.

"You're a strange man."

I murmured, unsure of what to say.

"I'm sorry, we haven't met. You don't happen to be another mage?"

He sounded awfully cheery but his eyes were steady. I fingered on one of my daggers a bit. One could think that it was clear that I wasn't a mage, but then you never really know.

"Ah no, I'm not. You must be Alistair?"

I guessed but I was quite certain that this was the man I've been looking for. His face shone upp with a charming smile at my question.

"And you must be Duncans new recruit I suppose? As a fellow junior member of the Order I will accompany you when you prepare for your Joining."

How did he know that?

"Uhm, yes. My name's Elaine. Pleased to meet you."

He clenched his right fist and slammed it onto his other open hand.

"Ah, that was the name!"

His sudden utburst made me take a small step backwards but he was looking at me and smiling.

"So... have you ever encountered darkspawn before?"

Alistair asked me in a friendly yet curious tone. I watched him carefully.

"No, so far I've been lucky."

I said dryly and he flashed a grin at me.

"Whenever you're ready to search Duncan out and prepare for the ritual, just tell me."

Now I gave him a small smile. He was indeed a charmig man and I could tell he had a good and honest heart.

"It'll be a pleasure travelling with you, Alistair."

"Really?"

He looked a bit confused but then he laughed a bit.

"Well, that's a first one."

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Chapter 1 done! ~dances~ and yes, I did change the conversation so I got it the way I wanted it.  
Cheers to you all! /Sierra Drake


	3. Chapter 2 Korcari Wilds

**Chapter 2 – Korcari Wilds**

_How did I end up in the leader position?_ Elaine complained to herself. Well, of course Alistair couldn't take the lead, he was just there to keep them a little safer since he was already a Grey Warden and undoubtly more experienced than them. At least more than her. Daveth were sneaky and not the kind of man who wanted to lead a group or even be in a group if he had a say in it – he was a bearable company though. Being a knight, Ser Jory would be the obvious choice of a leader if you asked Elaine, but he was to busy complaining about his wife and how he wished he was back at Redcliffe. So it had all fallen on her, but she didn't really, truly mind. Being of noble birth as she was, she used to lead people anyway, maybe they even found her a bit bossy at times. Ah, the negative effects of being born in the highest ranking family in the country apart from the royal one. But her temporary companions didn't know that, of course. She hadn't said her last name, she had introduced herself with her given name since the name of Cousland didn't really matter at the moment. Nothing really mattered anyway to her, she was determined to stay alive to find out if Fergus was still alive – by the Maker, she hoped that he was alive! A part of her wished that Duncan hadn't dragged her away so that she could die protecting her parents, but they wanted her to live and who was she to ignore their last request? Well, it had taken Duncan to drag her away screaming and crying... fighting darkspawn wasn't really a good way of grieving though. They were monstrous, but killing them didn't make her feel better at all, she just felt dirty, bloodied and empty.

They took a break and just sat on a few stones to rest their sore feet and to change bandages to some minor wounds. Ser Jory had gotten the most wounds, a few of them were even quite deep – wich probaby helped to worsen his already gloomy mood. Daveth had gotten a few wounds too, none too serious and he was trying to cheer up Ser Jory but sadly he failed miserably. Alistair – being a front fighter - had lesser wounds than both of them but he was also a trained warrior and really skilled with the sword and shield. Elaine herself had just a few scratches. She was feather-footed and very small so she could jump around easily in her leather armor and stab the enemies with her daggers where their armors had their weakest points. Alistair hummed as he cleaned one of Ser Jorys wounds, and the knight set his jaws and it was plain that he wanted to snarl at the man bandaging him but he didn't – it was clear that Alistair surpassed him in skill, strenght and all other things that mattered in a fight. Elaine stretched her aching shoulders before she got up from the stone were she had been sitting and casually she walked over to Alistair, who shot her a curious glance. She just raised an eyebrow, and juggled a bit with some bandage before waving at him and pointed at another stone wich she wanted him to sit on so that she could tend to his wound – wich still were minor but still existed. He huffed a bit in protest but did as she asked and without a word she started to take care of his left arm, he had the deepest wound there. They sat in silence, Daveth was doing the talking in trying to annoy or cheer up Ser Jory, Elaine couldn't really tell with him. So she just shook her head in silent contemplation.

The documents Duncan had wanted Alistair to fetch wasn't there. In fact, it was barely that the chest wich had once contained them was there, only pieces of what once had been a chest. Dead tree decompose, Elaine had mused. She'd been more surprised if the documents had actually been there, untouched. Well, but they met someone who actually seemed to know. A Witch of the Wilds, eh? Elaine wasn't really a judgemental person so she wasn't really on her guard as much as the men seemed to be, their discomfort almost amused her. The Witch, who had introduced herself as Morrigan, had promised to take them to her mother, the one that apparantly had taken the Warden Documents. _Being polite pays off most of the time_, Elaine decided. By being friendly, polite and honest she had gotten Morrigan to show them the way to her mothers hut.

"Thank you."

Elaine said to the old woman with piercing eyes. Morrigans mother had been witty and seemed a bit confused but something... was not really right. At least they had gotten the documents back. The old woman just laghed, a laugh that somehow made Elaine think of a very evil chicken. She shuddered and smile.

"So, you'll be off now?"

Morrigan, the with who wore quite revealing clothers, said.

"Don't be ridiculous girl! These are your guests."

Her mother scolded. The witch just rolled her eyes before agreeing in a bored voice that she would take them back to their camp at Ostagar. Alistair grinned happily at Elaine, who hesitantly smiled back.

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I'm a bit proud of myself for not having so much dialogue here. I often ruuush to the dialogue  
parts. I'm trying to be better! / Sierra Drake


End file.
